Bold, Underline, Italics
by TheWestDriver
Summary: It aches somewhere deep in her chest that they need each other so much. Unrequited Natasha/Pepper femslash. Mentions Pepperony.


A/N: This is all movieverse, so spoiler warning for Iron Man 2! Don't read this if you haven't seen the movie yet.

Let me begin by saying that I have _no idea_ why I decided to format this story like a crazy person. I like the way it turned out, but I still don't have an explanation for why I did it.

Also, I feel like I should say that I'm actually a huge fan of the Pepperony ship, but I had my femslash glasses on during Iron Man 2, and this Natasha/Pepper business is what came from it. Unrequited femslash! Was I the only one that thought Scarlet Johansson would ruin the Black Widow image? Oddly enough, the little screen time she had wasn't bad at all.

Read and review, please.

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During meetings, "Natalie" (Natasha, sometimes, but not ever Black Widow) is polite and businesslike, nodding as she transcribes the words of Ms. Potts and the people who speak for Ms. Potts. Sometimes she writes in Russian or French to entertain herself, and she usually chooses Latin when she's writing notes to herself in the margins.

Secretarial work is so far beneath her that she needs binoculars to see it, and it's only when **Pepper** is issuing a sharp rapport of commands that Natasha finds her brain occupied with anything but thoughts of the Avengers Initiative. Her fake boss is fast-thinking, and she's grateful for that.

When she has time to observe the idiot called Iron Man, she really doesn't even want to compile a report about him. Natasha finds the term _**narcissist**_ so all-encompassing that she wants to tear it from the dictionary and paste it into his personality profile like a third-grader.

It was something she noticed the first time she stepped foot in the Stark Mansion (which was extravagant and so bright that the Black Widow wanted to crawl back to SHIELD headquarters where she could creep out of shadows like death itself) and Virginia "**Pepper**" Potts met her at the door.

She found it distasteful that Tony had other people answering the door at his own house, the future leader of a multi-trillion dollar weapons industry, no less (not that Natasha is entirely certain that Stark's exchange of power is legal in the United States.) She introduced herself as "Natalie Rushman" and the thin woman introduced herself as **Pepper** (which was not the name on her birth certificate, and Natasha knew every inch of her life history) and Natasha wondered if the woman was trying to mislead her.

Probably not. **Pepper** Potts had an **honesty** and a **simplicity** about her that was hard to find, and that was why Tony Stark trusted her so much. Potts was the opposite of Stark's whirlwind deception methods, Natasha knew.

Inside she met the infamous Mr. Stark sparring with Harold "Happy" Hogan. (She recalled that Stark also called a military man "Rhodey" from her pre-mission briefing. **Pepper**? Happy? Rhodey? Stark renamed everyone he met.) His immediate reaction to the young woman standing before him was to invite her into the ring, and force Happy to teach her to fight. Natasha was _not amused_ (not that she showed it) and neither was **Pepper** (who showed it too much.)

She wouldn't turn down a challenge though, and poor Happy got the short end of that stick. A pair of dark eyes practically twinkled when he saw his chauffeur on the floor, writhing with shortness of breath. Natasha could tell by **Pepper**'s concerned face that Natasha already had the job. (Her blue eyes scream _rival_.)

It wasn't that Stark was unattractive, but the dripping confidence of her future boss had already begun to annoy her.

"I want one," said Stark, and both women bristled at his words.

That day, Natasha Romanoff, codename Black Widow, went home to her computer and typed **_narcissist_** in **bold**, underline, and _italics_.

* * *

The CEO's office looks like half of a Tony Stark graveyard and half of a **Pepper** Potts hospital, and the red-haired woman behind the desk reflects the image with her tired eyes and well-pressed pantsuit.

A flash of the night before passes Natasha's eyes (she has no idea why this is bothering her so much, like a broken bone or needle under her flesh) and she remembers the way she'd been reprimanded for trying to help Ms. Potts calm the storm that was the drunk Tony Stark.

_Don't you "Ms. Potts" me! Ever since you've been here-_ Ms. Potts began, and was only cut off by the destruction around them. The Tony/Rhodey explosion ended all discussion, and Natasha isn't certain if **Pepper** is aware that she was the pair of guiding hands that led her to what remained of the front door. To safety.

There was a lot of smoke and screaming, but Natasha thinks she knows, and it's probably made her even more suspicious of the Latin-speaking, martial arts trained, mysterious assistant standing before her.

(Natasha has never felt guilty during a mission, but **Pepper** is watching her like her best friend just kissed her boyfriend at the homecoming dance.)

"Natalie," she says.

"Yes, Ms. Potts?" Natasha responds.

"I'm meeting the board of directors in five minutes." Her shoulders slouch under the weight of her statement.

"Yes, Ms. Potts."

(The group of men has no respect for **Pepper**. They have little respect for women in general, unless they've done a dandy job with cooking Thanksgiving dinner or getting Timothy, Jr. to baseball practice on time. They are the remnants of Obadiah Stane's rule of Stark Industries.)

"Would you like me to reschedule them, Ms. Potts?"

Her boss shakes her head slowly. Virginia Potts looks broken, and it _**hurts**_ even the Black Widow to see her fingers idly ghosting across her keyboard, stroking the plastic with the comforting touch she is always giving and never receiving.

"They hate Tony, especially after last night."

(Of course, Natasha thinks, blood boiling. **Pepper, Pepper, Pepper** only thinks about Stark, Stark, Stark.)

Ms. Potts taps a fingernail to the desk. "Of course, they hated **me** long before that."

(Shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. She does something drastic to make amends.)

Setting down her clipboard, Natasha steps closer to the desk. "Would you like me to go in with you?" she asks. It is the first time that she has not addressed **Pepper** as Ms. Potts.

For the first time since they've known each other, **Pepper **cracks a tiny smile. It looks desperate and weary, but it's a sight for sore eyes. The terrible office seems less oppressive, and Natasha smiles back even though she hasn't received an answer yet and the waiting is making her more nervous than the Mexican standoff she had in Bolivia last summer.

"Are you going to karate-chop them like you karate-chopped Happy?"

(So simple, so honest. Natasha loves that such a little question can make bad situations so much easier to handle. She loves a lot about her fake boss.)

"Only if you ask me to," Natasha says, grin still quirking her pink lips as **Pepper** hands her the clipboard.

"Then by all means," she says, voice laced with laughter, "come with **me**."

* * *

When the Stark Expo takes a turn for the worse, she allows no sign of her displeasure to mark her visage. Natasha unclenches her gritted teeth and relaxes her shoulders, hoping not to alert Ms. Potts of the impending disaster.

Justin Hammer is on the stage. (What a fool, she thinks.)

He unveils the new suits, _his_ new suits for the Army and Navy, the Marines and Air Force, the manned suit stolen directly from Stark Mansion. He introduces James Rhodes as the pilot, and **Pepper** whispers, "Rhodey?" (A moniker she picked up from Stark, no doubt. **Pepper** isn't the kind of person to give nicknames, nor is she the kind to use them.)

The Iron Man suit is replicated dozens of times in many variations, and after a moment of awe from the crowd, the original suit in fire-engine red and gold (tacky choice, she thinks) flies down to the stage in what looks like a publicity stunt from Mr. Stark.

Black Widow knows better.

The open room grows tense with the electric charge of disagreement on the stage, and **Pepper** sits forward on her chair, borderline standing. (This is the position she's held since Tony flew inside. She is not aware that her fingernails are digging into "Natalie's" forearm on the armrest they share. Natasha grits her teeth again.) Stark says something that displeases Hammer (no surprise) and suddenly hell breaks loose on stage.

One of the suits fires straight into the air after Iron Man, erupting the ceiling into a roiling wave of superheated glass.

Natasha's reflexes are better than **Pepper**'s (years of training and a natural awareness of her surroundings makes the Black Widow deadly in more ways than one) and she throws her torso over **Pepper** on impulse when the glass comes raining down onto them. While she isn't sure that a normal assistant would have sacrificed a painful death to protect her boss, Natasha can hear the desperate gasp from the body next to her and it pulls at whatever's left of her heartstrings.

(The people in the auditorium are screaming for themselves, but **Pepper** is quietly gasping for them, her people, her responsibility, her Tony.)

The glass ceiling falls on the women (Natasha thinks she will smirk about this phrasing one day) and **Pepper**'s arms wrap around her employee's, trying to keep the pale skin of her assistant from the inevitable sharpness and pain, unaware that she's protecting a world-class spy from what amounts to paper cuts in her book of injuries.

Natasha is smaller, but stronger, and she presses **Pepper** against her without mercy, practically crushing her in the embrace. When the glass is on the floor, Natasha releases the baffled woman, pulls a shard of glass from the base of her own neck, and says, "Stay here."

She jumps two rows of plush red seats like she isn't wearing a dress and stilettos, dashing off to get her combat suit. Nick Fury will need a report, and now that **Pepper** is safe she can leave.

Naturally, Virginia "**Pepper**" Potts follows her.

* * *

They are approaching the end of the battle, she can feel it in her bones and swollen knuckles. Bodies litter the hallway, and Happy watches over her shoulder as she furiously types line after line of code into the computer. Natasha finally overrides the commands of some _brilliant_ villain (codename Whiplash, she recalls) and the worried face of **Pepper **Potts appears on the screen. Stark's grimace appears next, and contrasting his features to his former assistant's, it's as if **beauty** and the beast became elite cyber-nerds.

She sees their faces on the computer, and thinks that between the three of them they could hack into God himself. Natasha sees Tony watching **Pepper** and vice versa, and it aches somewhere deep in her chest that they need each other so much.

It _**hurts**_ the Black Widow.

Nick Fury would reevaluate her status as an agent of the Avengers Initiative if he knew how much it hurt her. Her lips purse, a tiny reaction, and she leaves the computer screen to take care of business. (Business is a wonderful distraction. Punching, spinning, kicking, clawing, killing. All _wonderful_ distractions.)

She debriefs at three in the morning to her real boss, to Mr. Fury, and hands in her final report on the enigma that is Tony Stark, making sure that **_narcissist_** is still typed in **bold**, underline, and _italics_. The bad guys are gone for now, not permanently (not until the Avengers are assembled) but the Black Widow can retire for the night. She can sleep easy knowing that all three of her bosses are happy, and Happy and Rhodey are happy too.

It has been a long time since she's slept well, late into the morning, without worrying about her charges every hour on the hour. Stark is like an infant, and Natasha is glad to be momentarily rid of him. **Someone** else will take responsibility for him.

Natasha isn't perfectly pleased with her mission, but it's over and the primary objective has been accomplished. No one **important** died, the superhero saved the day, rescued himself, and got the **girl**. It was the definition of success.

Before she falls asleep, she wonders what Stark was thinking when he named her **Pepper**.

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End file.
